Behind Our Eyes Book Launch Presents
Author/Translator/Musician Carrie Hooper
March 19, 2023 Transcript

Readers Note: If you have found this transcript to be helpful, please take a moment to let us know by sending a brief message to Marlene Mesot at: Marl.Mesot@gmail.com. You may also contact someone you know in our writers’ group. Thank you very much.

Ann Chiappetta: Happy zooming! Take it away, Carrie!

Carrie Hooper: All right. Thank you very much. And can everyone hear me?

DeAnna Noriega: Yes.

Carrie: Okay. Good excellent! Well, good evening. This is the BOE book Launch, Sunday, March nineteenth, at 8:00 p.m. on Zoom, and my name is Carrie Hooper, and I would like to talk to you this evening about my work as a poet and translator. So, I'm going to talk about how I became interested in poetry. I'm going to talk about my two poetry collections and where they are available. Then I will also talk about my work as a translator, and how you can access the books I have, how you can access some books I have translated. 

So first of all, how did I become interested in poetry? Well, I have always enjoyed playing with words. I'm my day job is teaching foreign languages and I also teach voice and piano lessons. And so, of course, singing involves words and all that kind of stuff. So I always enjoyed dabbling in poetry, and when I was a kid I wrote occasional poems, and they rhymed, and they were kind of silly. I'd write about our cats, or write, I remember a while back during the covid pandemic my father found something called Table of Contents, and it was to, probably some book I thought of creating as a kid, and it had titles like Dick and Rick, The River Bank, A Woman Who Used Her Head, and unfortunately, I don't have the poems that went along with that. Or maybe I just thought of titles. But anyway, that's how that was. And I did have one poem published in a literary magazine in high school, and it was metered and written in Elizabethan English, because we had studied Shakespeare in school, so I knew something about that. It was in memory of somebody who was killed by a drunk driver. And I did not know the person, but someone who played in school band with me, it was her aunt. So that was the extent of poetry. So the idea. Occasional poem when I'd feel inspired.

Well, fast forward. About 20, 30 years, give or take, and as I say, I got involved in learning foreign languages, and I know six languages, but that's a topic for another time. But one of the languages I learned was Albanian. Because I had a student from Albania in an Italian class I taught at my local college at Elmira College. I used to teach German and Italian there. Well, as I got to know Albanian a little better, I wanted to challenge myself to write poems in Albanian as a way to practice the language, and to see if I could express my thoughts in a completely different way, and so I did and several Albanians helped me to express myself with the right words, and so it was a very interesting experiment. I wrote many poems in Albanian, and I will be talking about the results of that a little bit later, but that's when I got into writing poetry seriously.

Well, I translated these poems into English, and I realized, hey, I can also write poems in English. So I started writing poetry in English, and I realized I didn't have to copy what other people did. I could write straightforward. Columns about my experiences. I didn't have to write like someone else. I didn't have to make the poetry. I had to share the poetry that was already there, and so my goal in writing poetry was, and still is, to present snapshots of life and of experiences in accessible language. Yet at the same time not simply writing something in my email to a friend, but something beyond that, making it artistic. So that's a work in progress. I continue to learn how to do that more and more engaging. That's a constant work in progress.

Well, so over the years let's say, starting in 2,010 till about 2,019, I wrote a whole bunch of poems in English, and then one time at this club I belong to called Zonta Club there was somebody who spoke with a local author, and he self-published some novels on a website called Lulu. L U L U And I thought, oh, maybe I could publish a book on Lulu. And so my friend David Lenington, who helps me organize concerts and does a lot of wonderful things for me, helped me to publish two poetry collections on Lulu. He formatted them, and a friend of his, and a friend of mine, too, named Sandy proofread the poems that I wanted to include in the book, and I have to give my friend Tim Hendel from Huntsville, Alabama a shout out because he helps me come up with a title for the book. So in twenty-nineteen I published My Life in My Words, and in twenty-twenty, I published Away from Home, and my poems are a lot of free verse, but I also do like to write in forms, meter or other forms, because I think writing informs, makes you have to think outside the box and not just write about the same old same old what I did yesterday, kind of stuff. So well, enough blabbering about general stuff. I think the best way to explain the books is just to give you some good news from the two books, and I'll tell you then where they're available.

So first of all, I'm going to read some poems from My Life in My Words, so I'd like to tell you about that book. So in the book there are 52 pages, and the book is divided into six sections: Thoughts on Faith, Huntsville, Alabama My Second Home, Life Experiences, Connecting with Nature, Holliday Memories and Reflections, and finally Miscellaneous Musings! My Life in My Words is available as a paperback, an ebook  and it's also on Bookshare. You can get it as a paperback or ebook from Lulu dot com. That's L U L U dot com. You can also get it from Amazon as a Kindle, and from Barnes and Noble.

So now, without further ado, I would like to read some poems. I'm gonna read one poem from each section. From the section entitled Thoughts on Faith, which has poems about my, well, my religious faith, I'm going to read the very first poem. “The First Language”.

The first language 
Did not arise from a human mind, 
But existed before time began.
Its words created the earth, 
Breathed life into every being, 
And taught people how to love one another.

But human pride and egotism 
Invented a new language.
Whose word produced sickness, fear,
Hatred, vengeance, war, and death.
The language of sin 
Corrupted the grammar and lexicon 
Of the first language.

Therefore the first language came to earth 
Fully human and fully divine.
To return humanity 
To its linguistic roots. 

The end.

Now, I am going to read from Huntsville, Alabama, My Second Home, “The House of Clocks”. So the poems in this section are all inspired by visits to see my friends Tim Hendel, and Doug Sailor in Huntsville, Alabama. So here we go with “The House of Clocks”. 

At my friend Debbie's house,
Coocoos, chimes, beeps and voices 
Announce the top of the hour.
While a chime rings 
Every fifteen minutes 
in that house you cannot say, 
“I lost track of the time”, or 
“The time got away from me;” 
Since the symphony of clocks 
Constantly tells you the time.

The end.

Yes, and now from the third section, Life Experiences, I'm going to read a poem Called “The Fair Shake Express”.  The Fair Shake is a local ice cream parlor, located in the little town of Pine City, New York, which isn't far from Elmira, and they had a children's train, and I wanted to ride it. So at the age of forty-two, I rode the train. And this is the poem that resulted. 

“The Fair Shake Express” 

The Fair Shake train, 
A plastic barrel 
On top of a cart 
Pulled by a tractor, 
Bumps along the gravel path 
Near this local gem 
Of an ice cream store. 

The balmy night breeze 
Whispers in my face 
As I ride this contraption 
For children of all ages.

After a couple of scoops of ice cream 
And a ride on the Fair Shake express.
I am the happiest kid 
In all of Elmira!

The end.

Now from Section Four, Connecting with Nature, I will read “A Spring Day” since tomorrow is the first day of spring.

How rejuvenating to inhale 
The sweet smell of spring,
Accompanied by sunshine and birdsong. 
Spring has finally emerged, 
From winter's cocoon.

The end.

Now from Holiday Memories and Reflections, I'm going to read a poem called “Daddy's Toyota Tundra”, and this was a gift from my brother. My brother bought my father a truck for Christmas in 2,004. And it's still running. So “Daddy's Toyota Tundra”.

Since its surprising arrival.
On Christmas morning, 2,004, 
Daddy's Toyota Tundra 
Has served us faithfully.

Many are the journeys 
That Daddy and his Tundra 
Have made to Texas.

How often this stout workhorse, 
Accompanied by the music of Elvis Presley or The Doors, 
Has conveyed me to work and elsewhere.
Many are the times 
That it has hauled my nephew’s belongings 
Hither and yon.
 
A survivor of scrapes and mishaps,
It stands majestically, 
In our driveway 
As a testament 
Of strength and endurance.

The end, and the last call I'm going to read from this book is “The Poetry of Life”. This is in the section Miscellaneous Musings. And so here we go.

“The Poetry of Life”. 

Awaken to life poetry.
See it in a sunrise, 
A rainbow, and a smile.

Hear it in a musical composition, 
A pleasant conversation, 
And the flow of a creek. 

Feel it in a soft pillow,
An embrace, 
And a gentle breeze.
 
Smell it in newly washed clothes
A pine tree 
And freshly mowed grass.

Taste it in a cup of hot chocolate, 
A glass of cold water, 
And a home cooked meal.
Life resonates with poetry, 
Savor it. 

The end.

So that's an overview of My Life in My Words and now I'm going to read to you some poems from Away from Home. As I mentioned, I published this book in twenty-twenty, and again David Lenington formatted it for me for a publication on Lulu dot com and Sandy Schmitt proofread the poems and made some suggestions. Now this book covers various travel adventures and has two parts. Part One is called a Week at Sea, and has poems inspired by a cruise, my first cruise I took with my family in twenty-nineteen. The second part is called Other Adventures, and has poems about other travels, including poems inspired by my visits to Batavia, New York.

I am part of the New York State School for the Blind Alumni Association, although I did not go to school in Batavia, I was allowed to join, because I know people who went there. The organization changed its bylaws a few years back. So there are poems in there related to the New York State School for the Blind and Batavia, as well as other places I visited in Western New York, and, by the way, those are Tim Hendel’s stomping grounds. Tim is originally from Rochester, New York, and he went to the School for the Blind in Batavia, and he helps me come up with the title for this book Away from Home. And so I'm going to share with you a couple of poems from this book so you get a sense of what's in here. And this book, so you know, has…Let's see, sixty-three pages, and there are photographs to accompany several of the poems.

14:10 Fix David Lenington phrase
Photographs from my cruise and photographs of other places I visited, and David Lenington helped to get those.

Carrie: So, the first poem I'm going to read is from Part One, A Week at Sea. It's called “All Aboard”, and it sounds like this. 

A cacophony of voices assaulted my ears, 
As we boarded our ship in Galveston, Texas. 
Documents dance before the eyes of the workers who checked us in.
Then came the long, winding walkway which led to the ship.
Followed by the eternal weight for an elevator, 
As people and luggage ascended to their rooms.
I welcomed the quiet of our room after the chaos of embarkation.
Later we completed the mandatory safety drill, 
Which did not take as long as I had thought it would.
At last we had completed the boarding process. 
So while still in port, we celebrated with a lovely lunch.
Then we waited for the moment when we would set off on an unforgettable adventure.

The end. 

Carrie: Now I am going to read “On a Beach in Cozumel”. Cozumel is an island off of Mexico, that was one of the places we visited on our cruise, and so here is “On a Beach in Cozumel”.
 
I reclined on a mossy rock, 
The waves lapped at my feet. 
The sun bathed 
My bare back and shoulders.
Children frolicked in the water, 

While a cold and snowy winter 
Gripped New York State.
I celebrated summer 
On a beach in Cozumel. 

The end.

Now I'm going to read two poems from Part Two, and this is Other Adventures. So, I'm going to read about two places I visited with a friend in Western New York. One was well near Rochester, and then one place was near Brooklyn, New York, so here we go. Two poems about Western New York.

“A Walk Along the Erie Canal”. 

When my friend and I 
Walked along the Erie Canal
The gravel crunched 
Beneath our feet. 
Torrents of water rushed by, 
And the occasional toot of a boat's horn 
Broke the silence.

I smelled the summer air, 
And touched two large bells.
A simple walk 
Became a three sense delight. 

The end. 

“A Visit to Springdale Farm”.

I petted a fluffy little bunny, 
Heard the bahs 
And touched the coarse wool 
Of a sheep.

I tried to pet a goat, 
But he was occupied 
With his afternoon snack. 

As my friend and I neared a pond, 
Ducks and geese flew around us.
And a robotic cow mooed. 
During our visit to Springdale Farm, 
My inner child 
Came out to play. 

The end.

Now just like My Life in My Words, Away from Home is available on Lulu dot com as a paperback and ebook. It is also available as paperback and ebook on Amazon, and from Barnes and Noble, just like My Life in My Words is also Away from Home, is on Bookshare.

Okay, so that gives you an idea about Away from Home. It's tomorrow, March twentieth, which is Monday, is World Poetry Day. I am now going to talk about my work with translating, because not only do I write poems in English, I also translate from different languages to English, and I have also written poetry in different languages. In fact, I've written songs in German, in Italian. I've written poetry in German, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, and Albanian, and I'd like to give you an example of the very first poem I wrote in Albanian. I wrote this, after having learned Albanian, and for 5 months, and I'd like to read, I'd like to read it in Albanian first. And then I'm going to read it in English. This is called “This Is a Day”. And this became part of a trilogy called Philosophical Songs, which I eventually set to music, and I have to admit, if I were going to perform them now, I'd have to review the music which I do have recorded. So here we go. I'm gonna read it in Albanian first.

“Kjo është një ditë”

Kjo është një ditë e re
Që Zoti ka krijuar për ne.
Shikojmë diellin e shpresës!
Pranojmë dritën e mirësisë
Që shkëlqen në gjithë botën
Dhe në çdonjëri!

Ky është agimi i mundësisë.
Ngrihemi dhe gëzohemi!
Pranojmë çfarë dita na ofron
Me premtimin e sigurt
Që nuk luftojmë vetëm.
Ne jemi bashkëudhëtarë
Duke përjetuar
Të gjitha brengosjet
Dhe të gjitha gëzimet.

Të falëndërojmë, o Zot
Për këtë dhuratë të bekuar!
E përdorshim mirë të përhapim dashuri!
U bëfshim çfarë jemi në të vërtetë:
Të gjallë, të lirë, të hapur.
Tani, o njerëzi, është dita!

“This Is a Day”. 

This is a day which is new
That God has created for us.
Behold now the sun of hope!
Perceive the light of goodness
Which shines in all the world
And in everyone!

This is the dawn of possibility.
Arise and rejoice, be glad!
Receive what the day offers us
With the confidence
That we're not alone in our struggles.
For we are all fellow travelers
Journeying together
Through all of life's sorrows
And through all of its joys.

We give you thanks, O God
For this gift with which you have blessed us.
May we use it well
To share love with one another.
May we become what we are in truth:
Alive and free and open!
Today, O people, the new day has come!

The end!

Now I have done a lot of work with translation. I have translated articles from Albanian to English for the President of the Society for Albanian American Writers, whose name is Adnan Mehmeti, and I also translated a book called In Rozafa’s Shadow. Razafa.is a castle in Scoter, which is located in Northern Albania. It's the story of the author’s escape from Communist Albania. So it's called In Rozafa's Shadow by Sami Rrepishti. That one was published by Adriatic Press, and it's only in print, as far as I know. I also translated short stories for an author named Sami Milloshi, and he published these on Amazon as a book called The Wall Clock and Other Stories, and I also translated two books for an author named Stirakolicci. One, in fact, was a collaboration called A Woman Between Two Men. It's a clean book. Don't let the title throw you. It's the story of an Albanian American who falls in love with a nurse who's engaged to another man in the Albanian American, whose name is Krishnik, is a drug dealer because his father gambled and owes money to this gambler, so to pay off the debt, he made his son becomes, his adoptive son actually, becomes a drug dealer, but he doesn't want to be a drug dealer anymore. The other book is not a collaboration, but I translated it, for Skifter Kellici. It's called Disastrous September, and it tells the story of the nine-eleven chaos of two thousand one from the perspective of the terrorists and the perspectives of other people like the flight attendants on the planes, and also Albanians, who worked as window cleaners. Several Albanians perished in the tragedy and Skifter Kellici actually worked at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. So he was there. He worked in security. So he was there the day of the tragedy. So he experienced some of these events firsthand. So he wrote the novel based on what he experienced, but also he explored the causes of the tragedy because the terrorists brought bottles and knives and perfume bottles on board, and used those in the attack, and Skifter said himself, had they not been allowed to bring those on board, the attack might not have happened. So very interesting book. I have also translated work for the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York City. I translated some short stories and one poem as part of a project called Life Anew. Authors Imagine the World after the Pandemic, and that was very interesting to translate those works. So, I've done quite a bit of very, very interesting stuff. 

Now, when you translate, you do not translate word for word. You have to translate the ideas from one language to another. So really in a sense, you are a co-author, even if say, I didn't actually write the book Disastrous September. But in a sense, you are a co-author, because you are authoring it in the target language. In this case English, and it's very time consuming to translate, because you have to think about what words you will convey. The idea the author intends. So it can take me several hours just to do one or two pages, but it's a labor of love. I love to do it. 

So I'd like to read for you a section from Skifter Kellici's book, Disastrous September, which I translated from Albanian into English, and in this section, we meet one of the Albanian window cleaners named Besim and his wife Marta, and their son, Trim. Now Trim in Albanian, means brave, and so in this scene, Besim is stuck in one of the twin towers, and he calls his wife and he and his wife and son were supposed to go to Kosovo, where they are from originally, but you'll see how that will play out. as I read this excerpt, and they also mentioned an Uncle Rrok. So this is an excerpt from Disastrous September translated from the Albanian, by Carrie Hooper. 

Marta was getting ready for work when the phone rang. She answered it and was surprised to hear Besim's voice. He didn't normally call that time of day.

"Marta, are you alone? Is Trim with you?"

"He's in his room. Why?" 

"I need you to be strong. The Twin Towers were attacked, and Al Qaeda is
likely responsible."

Marta almost cried. 

"I just told you to be strong, didn't I?"

 She bit her lip.
"Now listen carefully."
 Besim told her what happened. Marta bit her lip after every heart-breaking word and tried her best not to scream or cry.

"I won't say anything to Trim yet," she said.

Suddenly, she felt two small hands grab her from behind.

"Mommy, I just saw on the news the Twin Towers are on fire,” said Trim.  “Are you talking to Dad?"

Marta searched for the right words to say to her son. All at once, Trim grabbed the phone out of her hand and started talking to his father.

"Dad, you named me Trim, which means brave. I am and always will be as brave as my name. Are you in the Twin Towers?"

"Yes, Son. I am in Tower One,” said Besim, caught off guard.

 "We're coming to save you," said Trim.

 "It's no use, Son. The towers are on fire and will collapse any time. Only the people on the lower floors have a chance. I just hope Uncle Rrok will escape. You must be strong like your mother."

Trim could no longer hold back the tears.

"Come on, Trim!  You just promised me you’d be strong."

 Trim instinctively grabbed his mother's hand. He wanted to go to the Twin Towers as quickly as possible to save his father. He hoped for a miracle. He felt like he was in a dream.

"All right, Dad," he said, wiping his tears with his hand. "I'll try."

Although he was young, he was mature enough to understand the situation.

"Listen carefully," Besim continued. "In a few days, you and your mother are going back to Kosovo, to my hometown of Prizren.  Kosovo will be independent soon."

"Yes, Kosovo will be independent, maybe sooner than we think."

"It’s incredibly beautiful.  There are majestic mountains like Bjeshket e Nemura with Gjeravica the highest peak; the green fields of Fushe Kosove; crystal clear rivers like the Drin, the longest in the region; the lovely lakes in the Sharr Mountains."

"Yes, Dad." Trim could barely speak. "You told me about these places many times, and I promise I will visit them and Gruda, where Mom was born. Dad, can you hear me? Dad?"

No answer. Marta grabbed the phone.

"Besim, Besim!" she cried, but heard only loud noises and screams.

The end.

Well, that's all I have for my part of the presentation that there is plenty of time for all of you folks to ask questions, and, as I always say, there are absolutely no dumb questions at all. You may ask me anything about my books, or even if you want to ask about my day job or anything else, and I can tell you I'm still learning about poetry. I'm so thankful to my friend Tim, because he offers, although he's not a poet, he would tell you he's not a poet, although he certainly has a wonderful way with words. He offers a reader's perspective, and there have been times he has given honest opinions which at the time may have been hard to hear, but that I  needed to hear about where I could improve, like putting more feeling into poems, and, as I said earlier, that's something I'm working on, writing even more engaging poems, experimenting, so that I'm not just writing something I might email to a friend. And although, some of my poems may border on prose, I want them to be as lively as possible to express my voice, and I say that they are snapshots, so I want them to be photographs people will want to savor. So that's all I have for my presentation. So if you would identify yourself when you ask a question, take it away. Now the floor is yours.

Lynda Lambert: Carrie. This is Lynda Lambert. That was just wonderful. I really enjoyed that, and I don't think there's snapshots I think there video clips. They're just so beautiful. I wanted to ask if you would speak to your process, especially when you're working on a poem that you did from travels like, do you take notes on the scene? Do you work later from memory? Could you tell us a little bit about that? Please.

Carrie: Thank you. That's an excellent question. So I work from memory because what I write about would be something that struck me. It would be something unforgettable. So I work from what I remember of the experience, and I'll just write the poem I do if you will free writing, I'll just write down my thoughts so I can get them down on paper virtual paper. I use my braille note. I write all my poems in braille, by the way, so so I want to get those thoughts out before I forget them. And then later on I'll go back and revise and I've done that quite a bit. I'll leave things alone and then go back and revise what I've worked on. So that's my process. I just start writing when I feel inspired.

Lynda: Thank you.

Ann: Hey! Carrie! This is Annie. We have twenty-three participants, and because we seem all to be very well behaved, I guess we can just say our names and then ask our questions. No hand raising necessary. But I do have a question. Could you describe your equipment in relation to how you write, either doing your translations or your poetry.

Carrie: Sure. So I use a braille computer called a Braille Note Touch, and it has a braille display and speech. Usually I keep the speech off because I want to use my braille, and it has a braille keyboard on it, and I can write in any language I want to.

Ann: Hmm.

Carrie: You can set up language profiles, so that the languages come out directly with the accent marks. So I have it set up to write in German, Swedish. Oh, yes, I've written poems in Swedish. I forgot to mention German, Swedish, Albanian, Spanish.

I can write Italian. So with the profiles I have set up now, Romanian. So that's how I do it. And that's one of the reasons I wanted this equipment, the braille computer. Because of all my work I do with foreign languages, and then I can also read these languages, read material that people send me, or books in the languages or stuff from the Internet. And it was particularly useful for Albania. Now, at that time I had a different Braille Note, the one that came before the Braille Note Touch, Braille Note Apex, and that was very useful for Albanian, because, as you can imagine, you're not gonna find Albanian books in your run of the mill library.

Ann: Yeah, right.

Carrie: So, and when I do translations, I write them on my Braille Note Touch, again, because I need that braille. I need to see what I'm writing, and I need to read what's in the foreign language. I couldn't do it with just speech. I would get a headache. I need to see the words. I need the Braille.

Ann: Right. So, do you ever work from hard copy braille? Are you able to print?

Carrie: I don't have an Embosser to print. I used to, but I don't now. Besides, I'd have to get one compatible with the Braille…

Ann: Right? Okay.

Carrie:…Note Touch. So, but I bet it works. Because then I email the translations to whoever asked for them.

Ann: Yeah, much simpler. Yeah. 

Carrie: Oh, yes, absolutely. But I can tell you braille is an important part of my life. I learned braille as a child. I've been blind all my life, and I am so thankful I know braille, you know. I realize that people are in different circumstances. You know not everybody uses braille, and I understand that but for me, braille is a must for the work I do. So I hope that answers the question. So you're welcome.

Ann: Thank you. Yes, it does. Thank you.

Alice: Great, thank you so much for making this Eve of World Poetry Day so special for us. I think we could not have within Behind Our Eyes anyone who is more qualified than you to air this special event with us for the Eve of World Poetry Day. So thank you, and also non poetry. The translation that you presented of the Disastrous September again, magnificent performance, and I have a question that I've never asked you before. Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences in Sweden as a Fulbright scholar?

Carrie: Yes. Sure. So, okay, so, let me give you some context. So I told you I know six languages, and as we're talking about translation, I'll tell you what the languages are that I know. So German, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Albanian, and Romanian. And English. So I started learning Swedish when I was in graduate school, because the conductor of the University orchestra in Buffalo, New York, I went to the State University of New York at Buffalo, the conductor came from Sweden and now he also knew German. We would speak German, but I thought one day, I want to be able to speak Swedish with him, so I got books from Recordings for the Blind to learn Swedish, and, and the books were, a couple of them are totally in Swedish. So knowing German helped me to learn Swedish. Okay. Well, then, I eventually became interested in learning Swedish classical songs, and I wanted to gain a better understanding of Swedish music and culture. So I actually became friends with a blind Swedish music student in Stockholm at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm. Her name was Ulrika Norelius, and I met her through a program I listened to on radio Sweden's English service on short wave radio. I used to listen to a lot of short wave for languages help, and for language learning, and so well, then Ulrika told me about a guest student program at the University in Stockholm, at the music school. So I applied for it, and I applied for a Fulbright scholarship to finance my studies. I got the Fulbright, I got accepted to the school, and I'm all right, Guy, in person, but I also met many other people, and I had such a wonderful experience. I took voice lessons in Swedish with a Swedish voice teacher. I sang in a Swedish church choir, so we sang in Swedish. I participated in a St. Lucie pageant. That was fun. I sang for rotary clubs in Sweden, and also in Germany, and I sang in a gala concert in Berlin, and went to a seminar in Berlin to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Fulbright Commission which administers the Fulbright scholarship, and I went to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm with a group of their American Fulbright scholars when I was in Germany. I visited the concentration camp with a group I met. So many wonderful, wonderful people, and I was interviewed on radio Sweden in English and in Swedish, you know live not over the phone like I'd done with Ulrica. I had a fabulous year there in Sweden. It was just wonderful.

Ann: Thank you for sharing that. That's really yeah.

Carrie: I learned so much. I learned so many Swedish songs which I have performed in concerts here, and so that's how that was so. Any other questions or comments?

Ann: Oh, up to twenty-five people. So I'm shocked. No one else has a question.

Abbie Taylor: Carrie. Hello! Carrie, this is Abbie. I was just curious. 

Carrie: Yup.

Abbie: Okay, perfect. So that poem in your book Hilldale Farm. I could not help but notice that you mentioned a robotic cow. So was this a cow that was actually a robotic cow, or were you just saying robotic as an adjective to describe the cow?

Carrie: Hey? Okay.

Abbie: I'm just wondering about that cow, because I got a robotic cat. So I'm kind of wondering about this cow.

Carrie: Well, my friend told me that it was a robotic cow, and that it made a mooing sound.

Abbie: Yeah. But if it wasn't a real cow, though.

Carrie: Okay. It was not a real, I mean it was, but it was not alive. How it was actually a robot of some kind of robot.

Ann: Interesting.

Abbie: Oh, that is interesting. I know that's kind of an odd question. But that just kind of stuck out in my mind. And so I was just kind of wondering about that. Interesting, okay.

Carrie: Any other questions? 

Peter Altschul: Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah, okay. 

Peter: Carrie. This is Peter Altschul, and I am curious, because I knew you previously as a wonderfully talented vocalist. You performed several times on the Friends and Art Showcase.

Carrie: Yes, I did.

Peter: And you and I collaborated on a project many years ago.

Carrie: Yes, Oh, I do remember that. 

Peter: Do you remember that? So, but I'm really curious, what sort of prompted you to sort of not leave music, because obviously you haven't. But sort of segway into poetry. How does that work for you?

Carrie: Well, I felt like that was another outlet where I could create, and so much of the music technique is carried over. I do my best to make sure the words sing if you will, that I use just the right vowels and consonants. And I use a lot of musical imagery in my poetry or dance imagery. So. And again also, I think, just from having sung so much stuff, I grew to appreciate the power of words even more. And so that's how I did that. But definitely, I'm still singing. I'm still doing lots of stuff with music, too. You know poetry is music with words, as we know.

Peter: Okay. So, Carrie. This is not totally relevant to this conversation, but I hope you will consider sending something to perform in the showcase this year.

Carrie: Oh, well, thank you. Thank you.

Peter: Thank you. So think about that, and thank you.

Carrie: I will thank you. 

Peter: Thank you. 

Kim rioux: Carrie.

Alice: Carrie, Alice again, and I'm just wondering can you tell us a little bit about what I think is your first book of poetry called Word Paintings?

Carrie: Yes, thank you. I wanted to mention that. So Word Paintings is a collection of that's what I wrote in Albanian and translated into English. These poems cover several years, 2,009 to yeah, 2,013, and Adnan Memante, who is the president of the Society for Albanian American Writers, wanted to help me to publish a couple of these poems, and so I made sure they were all translated into English, because I wanted them to be accessible, not only to Albanians, but other people who wouldn't know Albanian, and so Adnan formatted the book, and then it was published in Pristina, which is the capitol of Kosovo, by a publisher named John Fuzoopoo and so again, it's only available in print, and I don't know if there are still copies in Albania or Kosovo, and I actually went to New York City, to do a promotion for that book. It was published in August of 2018. So that was my first published book of Poetry technically so. And it has poems about a variety of topics. Nature, my religious faith, Albanian, Special Albanians, and I even wrote an essay about my love of the Albanian language. It has told about my experiences with Albanians, visiting an Albanian school in New York City, and so I tried my hand at a lot of…It's got seventy poems in it. So, and I call support meetings.

Kim: Carrie.

Carrie: Yes.

Kim: This is Kim. And I just wanted to say, I like the way you write and think. Your faith poems are really cool. You need to do more of those I think.

Carrie: Well, thank you.

Kin: You're welcome.

Ann: Carrie, this is Annie. Who are your inspirations, like poets, or writers, or singers, who are some of the people that inspire you, that you like to connect with?

Carrie: I like just to read a variety of poets like Tennyson. I like his stuff. I haven't read some of these poets in a long time, but I like Tennyson. Well, I like reading even poems by my BOE colleagues.

Ann laughs.

Carrie: I like that, because it gives me a sense of what contemporary people are writing about. As far as singers, I really like classical music, and the old songs. I'm not really impressed with the modern music. It's a lot of noise to me. Yeah, I'm talking real modern. I like the old songs. People like Frank Sinatra, I really like him the way he sings and phrases and Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Connie Francis. Oh, Ella Fitzgerald! All those folks!

Laura: Nate would like to know what you're working on nowadays.

Carrie: Oh, well, I do continue to write poems once in a while. I'm not one of these people who can just sit down and spontaneously do it. I have to feel inspired to do it, and I just finished a translation for Adnon Mammothi, an article about his poetry that he wants to put in a book of poetry that he's publishing. So. And by the way, I get paid for some of these translations, too. So that's wonderful. So I got paid for this one. I continue to write poems and maybe I'll publish another. But I'm not in a hurry to do that. I wanna, really make sure I've got something to say. One thing I want to be careful not to do is publish the same old, same old if you will, all the time, the same style, same structure. I have to go through, you know, as we know, some of our writings are better than others. I have to see what's worth putting in a book.

Dawn Suvino: Anyway, Carrie, wonderful job, beautiful job reading beautiful words. I'm really blown away. I'm amazed at your number of languages that you read and write and speak. It's extraordinary. It's no wonder you were a Fulbright scholar. But I have a couple of quick questions. One is, with so many of the romance languages on your plate, how come no French?

Carrie: Well, that's interesting. I took French in high school, but at that time I was not as interested in languages as I eventually became. I was a late bloomer when it came to language, so I mean, I learned. I amazed myself sometimes with what I learned, with what I actually learned, because I didn't put a lot of effort into it.

Dawn: Right, right.

Carrie: But you know, I didn't start actually getting serious about languages 
until I was twenty years old and started taking German, and from the first day of German class I knew not only that I wanted to learn it, but I wanted to teach it.
Dawn: Wow! That's great. Well, you could do. You could pick up more French really easily. 

Carrie: Okay. I know I can do it.

Dawn: With Spanish, Italian, and Romanian, I swear.

Carrie: Oh, I know I could do it.

Carrie: It's you know. My day job keeps me busy, too.

Dawn: Right.

Carrie: That's but I appreciate the encouragement.

Dawn: And the other thing I wanted to mention is, you know I subscribe to the New York Times. 

Carrie: Yeah.

Dawn: And just a few months back there was an article by a translator talking about.

Carrie: Oh.

Dawn: Yeah, talking about the push to have translators names put on the title page.

Carrie: Awesome.

Dawn: There are a lot of translators who would like that to happen.

Carrie: Great.

Dawn: And I certainly applaud that, and apparently there is a recent book came out that was also reviewed in the Times called Catching Fire.

Carrie: Oh!

Dawn: Now I don't know if it's available in any kind of alternative format. I'm sure it's available in an e-book of some source.

Carrie: Oh, yeah.

Dawn: I'll send you the author's name, but it's about translation, and being a translator, and I just bought a print copy for a friend of mine who does a lot of translations from Spanish to English yeah.

Carrie: Oh, oh, oh, wow! That's interesting!

Dawn: Yeah. He's a professor. And so yeah, so I'll send you the title and the author's name, and I bet you would enjoy it very much.

Carrie: Well, thank you. Thank you.

Ann: Carrie. This is Annie. Oh, thanks, Dawn. The title of the book you mentioned could you share that on the Writers’ Partyline? The Catching Fire. I think it was right?

Carrie: Which? 

Ann: Catching Fire I think it was. 

Carrie: Yeah. Dawn mentioned that. 

Ann: I'm interested in that, too.

Carrie: Okay.

Ann: Carrie. You have something in the chat from your friend Nika. She said, thank you for your amazing presentation.

Carrie: Aw!

Ann/Nika Doko: And your Albanian poetry is beautiful. She says she wants to tell everybody that you are a phenomenal young lady. She just is amazed with the way you study and discover, and know languages so well and she reminded you that you know Italian. 

Carrie: Yes, I forgot. I do know Italian. Thanks.

Ann: As she reminds you that you know Spanish too.

Carrie: Yes and Spanish. I do know Spanish. Yes, I do.

Ann: So. Thank you, Nica.

Carrie: Yes, Italian and Spanish are also two of my languages. Yes,.

Ann: We're at 9 p.m. Carrie, and we do need to wrap up and get Alice to make her announcement.

Carrie: Let me say one more time where my books are available. So My Life in My Words, and Away from Home as well as A Woman Between Two Men and all four of these books also are available on Lulu dot com. And in paperback and ebook they're all available paperback and ebook on Amazon, and from Barnes and Noble. So that's where those books are available. As fpr the stuff I translated for the Romanian Cultural Institute. Perhaps it's still posted on their website, which is, I cee, like Charlie, R N Y dot com. And the project was called Life Anew: Authors Imagine the World After the Pandemic. It might have the first word in Romanian, which is V I A T A. So if you look for something like that, you may find it so. Now I will turn it over to Alice, and I want to thank everybody for coming, and thank you for this opportunity to present my books and translations. Now the floor is yours. 

Laura: Thank you. Thank you, Carrie, thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation.

Carrie: Who was that speaking? 

Laura: This is Laura, Laura.

Carrie: Oh, yeah, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Laura: Thank you, Carrie. I got your books. I like your call, and very much. I raise your points. I bought them from Lulu. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation.

Carrie: You’re welcome!

Alice Massa: Carrie, I think you have quite a fan club here, and thank you very much for a stellar book launch, and Carrie was our thirteenth BOE Book launch, and we are delighted to say that Lynda Lambert, who is also here this evening, will be our spotlighted author for April BOE Book launch, and we began these book launches in January of 2022 and had ten last year and already three this year, and we certainly hope that many of you will join us again for our upcoming book launches throughout this upcoming year. The book launch is just one of our many branches of Behind Our Eyes. I am Alice Massa, and I'm here this evening instead of our president, Marilyn Brandt Smith, who could not be here with us this evening, and also I'm here on behalf of our 109 members of Behind Our Eyes and since 2,006 we have been growing and besides this book launch, we also have our regular scheduled meetings of a variety of types of programs on each first and third Sunday of the month. We have had since early on the Writer's Partyline an email list for members, and in more recent times since 2016 we have had small group critique sessions led by Leonard Tuchyner, who is also here this evening. Three of those are ongoing. Each month we have had since twenty-nineteen Readers’ Workshop, and that, again, is a monthly event of Behind Our Eyes. Our newest endeavor, also with Joan, the Writers Exchange is a group of courses that we are now offering. That just began this calendar year. Now, besides all of this, we also have for our members and for others as well,  our biannual Magnets and Ladders and Magnets and Ladders really has so much of our writing there, and that is edited by Mary-Jo Lord, who is also here this evening. In addition to our online literary publication, Magnets and Ladders, we have upcoming soon our third anthology, and we hope that will be out this summer. Again, edited by Mary-Jo Lord, and with also co-editors, Marilyn Brandt, Smith, and Kate Chamberlin, who is here this evening, and I want to let you know as well that we have a way to invite new members if you are someone who is here this evening, who is a person with a verifiable disability and a keen interest in writing. You are most welcome to go to our website and click on the Join Us link, and you can become a member of Behind Our Eyes. Our website, and we invite all of you to check out our website, is www dot behind our eyes dot O R G. and at Behind Our Eyes dot org, you will find a wealth of information about our nonprofit organization and about our 109 members as well. You can find as well, links to recordings of all of our book launches that we have had, and so much more. We have another group called BOE Pilots, and they welcome our new members. And that group has been around since twenty twenty, welcoming new members. So if you know of someone who might be interested in joining, please share this information. We are all eager to welcome new writers. Writers need not be published, but we certainly welcome published writers as well. Again, please check out our website. Www dot Behind Our Eyes dot O R G. I want to thank, on behalf of Behind Our Eyes, Annie, and also Marlene Mesot, co-chairs of our Book Launch Committee. And who have also been our zoom hosts this evening, and of course, a very special thanks to Carrie for a truly wonderful book launch in presentation this evening. Thank you.

Carrie: And thank you, Alice. I would just like to thank everybody for coming tonight, and I would like to thank everybody for coming tonight, and I would like to thank Anne Shia, Peta and Marlene for hosting, and kind of hosting the meeting, and I would like to thank Alice for inviting me to do this book launch. I really enjoyed doing it. Thank you to everyone who came. Thank you so much.

Ann: Thank you, everyone. Good night.

Readers Note: If you have found this transcript to be helpful, please take a moment to let us know by sending a brief message to Marlene Mesot at: Marl.Mesot@gmail.com. You may also contact someone you know in our writers’ group. Thank you very much.